Dude #25 - Phil-a-lu II

The dude, the dude,

Belongs to a brood

  Of birds like the phil-a-lu;

He struts the street,

With picket-toes feet,

  And slings a cheap bamboo.

The dude, the dude,

Is always rude

  With his idiotic star;

He poses for the girls,

With his bangs and curls,

  Trying to “mash” everywhere.

The dude, the dude,

With manners crude

  And cheek of the rarest kind,

Essays to talk

Where angels balk

  And inflict his silly mind.

The dude, the dude

Is not indued

  With the fact that he’s an ass;

Every one knows

Him by his clothes

  As on the street he’s seen to pass.

Evening Critic (Washington DC), April 26, 1883, page2.

[See also, Philalu I]

 Is this a Philalu?

‘Philalu!’ cried the beast, ‘and chone! Philalu!

Saint Patrick, my darling, don’t look so blue.

London Society, Volume 24, September, 1873, page 251.

Philalu also appears in another Irish poem:

Ochone an’ ullagone ! we must vainly sigh an’ groan’’

  Philalu! A long adieu to Clifford Lloyd!

Caoine of the Clare Constabulary, from Arthur M. Forrester, An Irish Crazy-Quilt, Boston, 1891, page 77.